Blatter slams Euro 2020 format over 13 countries

14 March 2013 12:46

FIFA president Sepp Blatter has criticised the proposed format set to be used at Euro 2020 and says the scattering of the tournament over 13 countries will not make it a true European championship, the 77-year-old Swiss told German magazine Kicker on Thursday.

"A tournament belongs to a country, across which is created an identity and state of euphoria. The 2020 tournament has been dispersed and it is no longer a true European championship.

"It should be called something else, I don't know what but such a tournament will lack heart and soul." he continued.

Blatter also pointed out to UEFA president Michel Platini that the idea was not a new one and was in fact initially proposed by slain Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi for the organisation of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

"Colonel Kadhafi told me that a match should be held in each of the 53 African countries. I told him, it was unthinkable."

Platini who launched the concept at the conclusion of Euro 2012, said he had received the congratulations of the FIFA president last December and quoted Blatter as saying it was "fantastic" during the agreement to proceed with the idea at the last UEFA executive committee meetings.